Albert Marth discovered NGC 6269 = m 322 = St II-8 on 28 Jun 1864 and noted "F, S, R." Truman Safford rediscovered this galaxy (along with NGC 6264 and 6265) on 11 Jul 1866 at the Dearborn Observatory. Édouard Stephan found it again on 22 Jul 1871 and his micrometric position is very accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/27/95): fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, 1.5' diameter. Even concentration to a bright core and stellar nucleus. A mag 13.5-14 star with an extremely faint companion lies 1.3' S of center. Brightest in a "poor" group of faint galaxies (AWM 5).

17.5" (7/1/89): fifth and brightest in a string of 8 NGC galaxies with NGC 6264 6.5' W and NGC 6265 9.4' W. Fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, gradually increases to a small bright core.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb